"Helena! Good to be back?" Olivia greeted when the agent entered the office after having been away for an excessively long time.

"Hey, Liv. Yeah, it certainly beats the alternative," Helena smiled. "What's up?" she then inquired. She'd been looking for Hunnigan, but apparently she was busy somewhere else.

"Not much, just looking over some footage from the academy. Technically, we should hire an actual headmaster of sorts for the academy, but with everything that's been going on, we don't currently even have a director for the agency so... I've sort of fallen into the role of a de facto headmistress of the academy," Olivia said.

"So, how's what working out?"
"I'm actually enjoying it. For now, anyway." she answered.

"What's stopping you from applying for the position?"
"I don't have a teaching certificate. Besides, I don't think I'd want to do it for a living, I prefer being a field operations support agent. Did you need something or did you just come to tell me how pretty I am?" she then inquired with a smile.

"Yes and yes, you're very pretty, and I was looking for Hunnigan, I wanted to ask if she would take me to lunch," Helena chuckled.
"She's on her third forty minute-bathroom break. I don't know what she ate, but clearly, it doesn't agree with her digestive system," Olivia smirked and Helena let out an amused scoff. Hunnigan hadn't told Olivia about the pregnancy yet, it seemed.

"How's things at the academy?" Helena changed the subject.
"Well... aside from a few incidents between cadets, it's turned out to be a great thing," Olivia said, a hint of rightly deserved pride coloring her voice; the academy had been mostly her idea.

"That's awesome!" Helena smiled. "What kind of incidents?" she then asked and Olivia sighed deeply as she dug up the video footage from the most recent altercation.
"A certain little hot head who doesn't know how to play nice with the others is causing some trouble," she rolled her eyes and played back the video.

"For Christ's sake, Blake, what part of 'cover me' do you not understand!" Lucy yelled to a fellow cadet and shoved him furiously.

"Back off, you fucking brat, how is anyone supposed to cover you when you run off on your own unannounced, completely disregarding the rest of the team and their safety!" he pushed back.

Lucy tackled him, ramming her shoulder into his midsection in an attempt to knock him down, but he was noticeably taller and solidly built, she couldn't get him to budge. He chuckled, grabbed the back of Lucy's vest (that was splattered with red paint because the other team had managed to hit her repeatedly when she'd been trying to disable their transmitter and win the round) and yanked her away from himself.

When she ran at him again, he caught her, lifted her up and knelt down, dropping her over his knee. She bounced off it like a rubber ball, rolled to the ground and turned to lay on her back, gasping for air to replace the breath that had been knocked out of her by the impact.

"Stay down!" he said sternly.
"Enough! What the hell are you two doing!" Leon finally intervened when he arrived at the scene.

"We just had a minor disagreement regarding how to conduct ourselves on the field," Blake said and offered his hand to Lucy who was still on the ground. She grabbed a firm hold of it and he pulled her up.
"Yeah, now we know better," she shrugged one shoulder.

"If either one of you behaves like this again... toward each other or toward other cadets, I'm suspending you," Leon threatened.
"Yes, sir," they both mumbled in unison.

"Wow," Helena said. She had to admit she was impressed by Lucy. Not because she kept getting in trouble but because of how quickly she recovered from the drop.

"You can see why this is frustrating. Lucy has actually turned out to be rather good at the job, but the problem is her attitude. The others have actual experience from their previous schooling or jobs, they have a sense of what the protocol is in general, Lucy doesn't, but that doesn't stop her from acting like she knows better than they do. And you can imagine how well trying to give her feedback and direct her works," Olivia groaned.

"Yeah, and I don't think Lucy is the type who takes kindly to being told she's doing it wrong," Helena muttered.
"She definitely is not. Which sucks because, like I said, she is good. But ultimately, she's useless if she can't take orders because that's the least you gotta be able to do in this job."

"I know, I had similar issues when I was younger," Helena smirked. She'd only grown out of it when those who genuinely did know better had proven her wrong and knocked her down a peg or two.

"Any advice on how to handle her?"
"Let her crash and burn, it's the only way she'll learn."

"Great, that's really helpful," Olivia drawled sarcastically and Helena laughed softly.
"I never said it would be easy," she shrugged innocently. Hunnigan finally returned to the office, looking a bit flushed and unwell, chewing gum to get rid of the taste of vomit in her mouth.

"You okay?" Helena asked and went to her, reaching to gently touch her arm.
"I'm fine," Hunnigan assured and went back to her desk. Helena sighed internally. Back to work, back to being the serious officer, back to dealing with the world's problems. The honeymoon was over.

"Anything new on Kosmin?" Helena asked.

"No, and he's not giving up anything, he's pretending he planned all of this and used Jenova to get where he was, but it's all bullshit. Problem is we have no evidence to the contrary either," Hunnigan said. Helena nodded and went to take a seat on the edge of her desk.

"What about Ada Wong?"
"What about her?"

"Well, she delivered the files... and Nadia and I back to the States, I'd imagine she would have something to say," Helena shrugged a little.
"I'm sure she knows more than we do, but that won't make a difference since she's not here making a statement," Hunnigan pointed out.

"So that's it, that's all we've got?" Helena frowned.

"We've done our due diligence, and we have no evidence against anyone else, what would you have me do?" Hunnigan quirked an eyebrow. "The only lead we have is Irma Wesker and she's demented. The only connection between Jenova and The Family is Kosmin, there's nothing more we can do, no one else we can convict. I'll be glad if we even manage to sort this out," she then added.

"I'm sorry, I'm just..." Helena began and glanced over her shoulder then. "Um.. Liv, could you give us a moment?" she then requested and Olivia rolled her eyes.

"Sure, I'll just go get some coffee from the coffee house three blocks away, how about that?" she said dryly and exited the office.
"Sorry!" Helena called out after her.

"What's wrong?" Hunnigan asked and stood up. Helena reached to put her arms around Hunnigan's midsection and hugged her to herself.
"I'm just worried. What if Kosmin comes after you?" Helena muttered.

"Why would he do that?"
"Because you testified against him."

"Yes, and having me assassinated would only draw unwanted attention to him and The Family, not to mention that it would be unnecessary to come after me, my testimony is already on the record and has been submitted and accepted into evidence, killing me wouldn't accomplish anything," Hunnigan reasoned.

"Other than satisfy Kosmin's need to get revenge," Helena argued.
"Honestly, I think it's more likely The Family will try to have Kosmin assassinated and then go into the ground until the dust settles."

"Why would they kill him, he's the perfect scapegoat."
"Just in case he changes his mind and starts blabbing. Or they'll likely let him go down for this and have him killed later in jail to tie up loose ends. It's what I would do in their shoes," Hunnigan shrugged.

"Cold."
"But efficient."

Helena slid down from the edge of the desk and stood up straight, slipping her hands up along Hunnigan's back and slowly wrapped her arms around her, moving to rest her head against Hunnigan's shoulder.

"I worry," she mumbled.
"I know you do, especially now that I told you about the baby," Hunnigan said.

"I worried long before that, but you're right," Helena said and hugged her tightly.
"I'm fine, and your baby's fine too, daddy," Hunnigan smirked.

"Agh!" Helena scoffed and Hunnigan laughed heartily as Helena recoiled. "You're a little bit evil, aren't you?" she narrowed her eyes at Hunnigan who shrugged in fake-innocence.

"Me? Perish the thought."
"Please, don't do that again."

"I won't... unless a golden opportunity to inappropriately use the word 'daddy' presents itself again," Hunnigan promised and Helena sighed with a smile.
"Careful, don't want this to turn into an actual fetish."

"I always pick the perfect moment to enter a room," Olivia said when she walked in, hearing nothing more than the word "fetish". Judging from the coffee mug with the D.S.O. logo on it, she hadn't gone three blocks away to get a cup, but had rather stepped to grab some from the field agents' office.

"You certainly do," Helena chuckled.
"So, what is your fetish, Hunnigan?" Olivia quirked an eyebrow and went to take a seat at her desk.

"Does it count as a fetish if I only like it on one particular person, namely, Helena?" Hunnigan frowned as she thought about it.
"Well, it's not as common, but it's not unheard of, so yeah," Olivia nodded.

"Then I'd say my fetish is Helena's arms," Hunnigan said and Helena immediately shoved her sleeve up and flexed her left arm. Olivia snorted, a little dribble of coffee spewing from her nose.
"You two are killing me," she coughed as she patted her face dry with the hem of her T-shirt.

"Never say I don't surprise you," Hunnigan smirked and gave Helena's bicep a squeeze before tugging her sleeve back down.
"You definitely did that, I was not expecting you to answer at all, or if you did, that you'd just say something lame like Helena's tits or something," Olivia chuckled.

"I refuse to be that obvious."
"Hey, hey, hey, how dare you call my tatas lame?" Helena narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her breasts.

"I didn't mean it like that, I love your big boobs and would gladly motorboat you all night long," Olivia said, and they laughed. "All right, fair's fair, so I gotta ask you too: what's your fetish?" she then asked from Helena.
"Well, I do adore Hunnigan's collar bones but I wouldn't call it a fetish. I don't really have one, I think."

"Oh, really?" Hunnigan drawled and Helena glanced at her.
"Well, there's that, but I didn't think I'd be allowed to mention it."

"Now I'm seriously curious," Olivia said, leaning forward and resting her chin in the cup of her hand. "What is it? Watching girls lick door knobs? Nose-picking? Inflation porn?"
"Those can not possibly be actual fetishes," Helena made a face and Olivia scoffed amusedly.

"Oh, my sweet summer child."
"I'd rather not know," Helena shook her head.

"Enough with the mystery, tell me the answer already."
"Well, um... I wouldn't call it a fetish, but knowing Ingrid's expecting my baby is a huge turn-on for me."

"Oh, well, that's nothing out of the ordinary exactly, a lot of people find pregnant women... wait, wait, wait. Wait. You're saying... she's pregnant? And it's yours?" Olivia frowned deeply. They both nodded and Hunnigan explained the details of the process to Olivia and how it was possible that the baby was Helena's.

"Oh, my God! That is amazing! Congratulations!" Olivia said happily as she scampered to her feet and excitedly pulled the other two women into a tight hug. "We need to celebrate this!" she then said.
"My thoughts exactly, which is why I was thinking that we'd have a little get-together next weekend. Or, well, to be precise, what I was thinking is more like a sleepover," Hunnigan said when Olivia finally let go of her and she could stand up straight.

"Really? Who's invited?"
"Just you," Hunnigan replied and Olivia narrowed her eyes a little bit.

"Are you offering because of that awkward conversation we had a while back? Because I'm fine, don't do me any favors," she said, her tone growing insulted.
"It's not because of that, but that is what made me realize we don't do things like this often enough," Hunnigan shook her head. "So, what do you say, wanna spend the weekend with us?"

"I do but I don't have anyone who could look after my cat."
"So bring your cat with you," Helena suggested and Hunnigan nodded in agreement.


"Give me one of those, would you?" Olivia requested as she stood outside on the patio with Helena.
"I didn't know you smoke," Helena said as she handed the cigarette to Olivia and proceeded to light it.

"I'm a social smoker... when I'm drinking, anyway," Olivia explained, inhaled and exhaled the smoke and then took a swig of beer. She and Helena both had felt a little guilty when they'd started drinking, knowing Hunnigan wouldn't be able to participate, but she'd assured them that it was fine. Instead of getting wasted, she'd spent her evening playing video games and serving as a warm, comfortable spot to lay on for Olivia's cat, Clawdia, who could not be removed from Hunnigan's lap without force.

"So, how are you really doing? I mean... Ingrid told me about your dad. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner, but I was worried it would bring the mood down, and I hope I didn't just do that, but I had to ask," Helena rambled on and Olivia scoffed amusedly.

"It's fine," she assured. "I'm... not. I don't know."
"Do you want to talk about it? You always seem so happy and okay that I never would've guessed anything had happened."

"I don't see the point of bringing my depression to work, it's not gonna get better by bringing everyone down with me."
"Liv, you of all people know how unhealthy it is to bottle everything up."

"I'm not bottling it up, I just don't know how to talk about things because I've never been the one who talks. No one ever asks me how I am doing, so, being the one who listens is the only way I really know how to be."
"I'm asking you now," Helena said and drank from her beer before taking a drag of her cigarette. Olivia mimicked her and sighed deeply after swallowing the beer.

"Ever since I was a kid, I was always expected to be there. My siblings were allowed to go out with their friends and move out and all the normal things kids do. I wasn't."
"Your parents kept you locked up in the house?" Helena's eyes widened a little and Olivia laughed, shaking her head.

"No, no. Well, not physically. They guilt-tripped me. Or, well, my dad did. So, eventually it turned into me choosing to just stay at home with him rather than risk feeling guilty because if I went out and had fun, he'd be alone and worried about me."
"Well, that's fucked up."

"My childhood was pretty fucked up."
"Tell me," Helena encouraged.

"It's the boring, typical story. My parents were alcoholics who neglected their kids, how original, right?" Olivia smirked ruefully. Helena didn't comment, simply drank from her bottle and waited for Olivia to continue.

"My older sister and my brother moved out when they were teenagers, they couldn't stand being at the house. I'm about ten years younger than they are so I was just a kid when they left. And my younger sister is less than two years younger than I am, so when it was just the two of us, I was the one who was given the responsibility to look after her."

"I know that feeling."
"I know you do," Olivia nodded. "Except your sister wasn't a manipulative, shameless liar like mine is. She gets that from mom mostly."

"So, you were the Laura Ingalls of the family, always there and always helpful, never asking for anything."
"When you put it like that it sounds like I'm painting myself as a martyr here," Olivia smirked and Helena snorted.

"I didn't mean it like that."
"I know, I'm just messing with you."

"Okay, good," Helena said and offered Olivia another cigarette. She accepted it.
"And you're not wrong, I was the Laura Ingalls, so to speak. When my parents would get drunk and start fighting over something trivial and it got physical, I was the one trying to pry them apart."

"Your dad beat your mom?" Helena inquired.

"No, it was the other way around, she beat him. Occasionally, he'd lose his temper and slap her or shove her away from himself, but I don't blame him for that, I mean, how would you react if Hunnigan came at you with a steak knife or high heeled shoe?"

"I'd... probably make an effort to keep a distance too," Helena said slowly.

"It's weird... They fought a lot, but I don't remember all the times, I just remember some details about some of them. Like, one time, dad was making chocolate milk for me and my sister, and mom came at him for some reason, and she just began wailing on him and he spilled the cocoa powder. I remember what it looked like on the carpet. I don't know why I remember that," Olivia chuckled a little and belched into her fist before taking a drink of beer.

"Then there was this one time mom left to go to the store and she called out something about watering the houseplants, so of course I watered them. When she got back and I proudly told her I'd done as she'd asked, she got furious and started yelling at me because apparently, she'd told me not to water them. Then she was like 'I bet your father put you up to killing my plants', and I thought that was ridiculous."

"It is," Helena agreed.

"I realize now she wasn't angry at me and not about the plants, she was already pissed off at dad over something else, but she took it out on me and apparently it made sense to her that dad would've told me to water her plants just to spite her. There's about a thousand more stories I could tell about the times she almost killed dad and how he pretended it never happened, and if anyone asked, he'd tell them someone tried to mug him, but you get the gist by now, I'm sure," Olivia blew a raspberry.

"What happened to your mom?" Helena asked.
"She fell down the stairs drunk and died. I still feel horrible about this, but honestly, I was relieved when she died because it meant she wouldn't be terrorizing us anymore."

"I can understand that."

"I grew up fearing mom would kill dad, so I did the only thing I could think of to try and protect him, namely, stay with him. And when she was gone, I had to stay with him to keep him company because he had no one. At least for a while. Whenever there was booze or adoring women available, I became obsolete."

"Wow. There's gratitude for you."

"Exactly. Then he got older, lonelier, got comfortable just staying at home alone and drinking excessively... and somehow, it became my job to look after him. He wasn't an invalid, he could've taken care of himself, but he chose not to. I had to visit every fucking day, and I realize I'm to blame as well, I enabled him, but still! My younger sister visited only when he had money she could take from him. And when he ran out of money, I had to pay for his addictions, knowing I'd never get the money back. And if I didn't, he'd chew me out for not helping."

"Whoa, what the shit? You not helping when you're the only one who did without asking? What was wrong with him?" Helena scoffed, getting agitated for Olivia.
"Yeah. So, if I ever wanted to do something for myself, like just go home straight from work, I couldn't. But, I can't blame it completely on dad."

"Why the fuck not?" Helena quirked an eyebrow and Olivia smiled ruefully.

"Because I made it possible for him to manipulate me like that. I don't think he even realized how much he did it because it was just so easy for him to do that 'Woe is me, I'm all alone'-speech every time I tried to tell him I wouldn't be coming over because I wanted to go home. It wouldn't have worked if I hadn't let myself become so freakishly attached to him."

"Well, yeah, but that's still a shitty thing to do, and I refuse to believe that someone accidentally manipulates another person. I'm sorry, I know this is your dad we're talking about, but there's no way," Helena shook her head and finished her beer. Olivia paused to take a drink of hers too.

"I'm sure you're not wrong, but what I mean is... my siblings and I grew up in the same environment but they never had trouble living their lives. They met people, traveled, did not feel obligated to call dad every day. I'm the one who preferred playing it safe and staying with dad because I didn't think I'd be able to handle it if something happened to him and I hadn't spent enough time with him."

"But you didn't 'prefer' it, you were conditioned and guilted into it," Helena frowned, not understanding how Olivia apparently didn't seem to realize it herself. She was the mental health expert here.

"It's ironic that my fucked up need to spend time with him while I could so that I wouldn't have to regret anything after he passed is what made me get so frustrated with him that I ended up snapping at him to leave me alone, and that was the last time that we spoke," Olivia said and burst into tears suddenly.

"Oh, Liv, come here," Helena whispered and pulled her into a hug. "It's okay, let it all out," she mumbled softly and held her. They stayed there for several minutes until Olivia's sobs slowly began to cease and she pulled back from the hug, wiping her face.

"Okay... I think I'm done crying now," she sighed deeply.
"All right, but if you want to talk more..."

"It's fine. I appreciate it, but I don't want to dwell on it further," Olivia sniffled. "Besides, I gotta take a piss," she then smirked and Helena chuckled.
"Is everything all right?" Hunnigan asked from Helena after Olivia had excused herself to use the bathroom.

"Yeah, some feelings just needed airing," Helena smiled weakly and went to take a seat next to Hunnigan, explaining the gist of what had been shared, and Hunnigan nodded.
"I'm glad you got her to open up," she said and kissed Helena's forehead.

"I am too."

"Where are you going?" Helena then asked when Hunnigan stood up and moved the cat from her lap over to Helena's lap. Clawdia made a disgruntled noise when she was forcibly removed, and immediately hopped down from Helena's lap, apparently having deemed it unworthy of her.

"I am going to take a bath, behave yourselves while I'm up there, but don't even think about disturbing me," Hunnigan said, kissed Helena once more and headed to the bathroom upstairs, Clawdia trotting up the steps right behind her. Apparently, Hunnigan had just made a new friend.

"Much better," Olivia sighed when she returned to the room and slumped onto the couch. "Where's that darn cat?" she then asked, looking around. The last thing she wanted was for her pet to destroy Helena and Hunnigan's property while no one was looking.

"She just went upstairs with Hunnigan. She's been really clingy toward her the entire day," Helena pursed her lips.

"She knows Hunnigan's pregnant."
"Cats can tell?" Helena quirked an eyebrow. She'd heard of dogs detecting cancer but she'd never thought much of cats. She didn't dislike them but she admitted she was a dog-person.

"Cats are very loving, warm and protective creatures, people just don't get it because cats communicate in a more sutble way than dogs do."
"I've always been told the story of cats suffocating babies or tripping old people."

"Sadly, you're not the only one, but you're all wrong. I even know of a cat who dialed 911 when his owner fell from his wheelchair and couldn't get help."
"You're making that up!" Helena scoffed in disbelief and Olivia quirked an eyebrow.

"When do I ever make things like that up? Google it if you don't believe me," she challenged.

"So... what did the cat tell the nine-one-one-operator?"
"Oh, shut up, Harper," Olivia laughed. Helena got them more to drink and let out a contented sigh as she sat back down and leaned into the couch, feeling herself relax truly relax.

"How's Hunnigan been, aside from the morning sickness? Tired? Cranky?" Olivia questioned and Helena chuckled.
"Why do you need to know all that?"

"Because I need to know you two are getting along with each other so I won't have to worry about you. You know I love your relationship."
"Man, you gotta get a boyfriend," Helena chuckled. "But, to answer your question, she hasn't been tired of cranky, yet anyway. On the contrary, she's been... um..."

"Excessively amorous?"
"Something like that," Helena grinned and took a swig of beer.

"Enjoy it while it lasts."
"Oh, I do."

"Well, good. I'm really happy you guys are okay. I was worried for a while there," Olivia said.
"We are, thanks to you yelling some sense into both of us," Helena smiled.

"Anytime!" Olivia promised and clinked her bottle against Helena's before taking a drink.
"So, how's your love life? I told you of mine, you tell me of yours."

"There's nothing to tell. I did go out with someone a couple of times recently, but it wouldn't work, so I ended it before it got serious."
"Why wouldn't it work? Didn't you like him?"

"It wasn't about liking, it was about us being very different. It would've been short-sighted to let it get serious, so. But, it doesn't matter, aside from being a little touch-starved, I'm fine."
"Liv, you're not fine, you just told me you're depressed."

"Who isn't nowadays?" Olivia challenged and Helena couldn't think of a response because Olivia probably wasn't wrong.
"Well, still, just... I worry about you."

"This is exactly why I don't tell people about this kinds of things, I don't want you to worry and I don't want you to pity me, I want you to treat me like you did before I said anything," Olivia sighed tiredly.
"I get it, but promise me you'll tell me if it gets worse, okay? I don't have enough friends to lose the best one to depression," Helena said and Olivia chuckled ruefully.

"You'll be the first to know."

They finished their beers and decided to call it a night. Helena guided Olivia upstairs and when she asked where she would be sleeping, Helena informed her she'd planned it like a proper sleepover, and unless Olivia objected, the three of them (four if you counted the cat who refused to stop following Hunnigan around) would be sleeping in the same bed.

"Are we gonna have a threesome?" Olivia said when she got into bed with Helena and waited for Hunnigan to finish her long bath and get to bed as well.
"Liv, please," Helena laughed softly.

"I am not a religious woman but I have prayed for it," Olivia jested.
"You're incorrigible," Helena smiled, pulled Olivia into a sweetheart's cradle and rested her cheek against the top of her head.

"That's one of my better qualities," Olivia yawned as she reached to put her arm around Helena's midsection. They'd both already almost fallen sleep by the time Hunnigan snuck into the room and got in bed, mirroring Olivia's position, taking up a spot on Helena's other side.

"Good night, my love," Hunnigan whispered and kissed Helena's cheek softly.

Clawdia meowed at the foot of the bed before jumping up and taking slow, careful steps upward. She walked up along Hunnigan's leg, her paws digging into the side of her thigh. Hunnigan grunted quietly, then exhaled in relief when Clawdia settled to lay on Hunnigan's hip, purring loudly as she rested her head on Hunnigan's hip bone and closed her eyes slowly.

"I think I might want a cat," Hunnigan muttered to herself and reached to pet the cat's head.
"Cats are evil creatures," Helena mumbled, surprising Hunnigan who'd assumed she was asleep.
"Eat a dick, Harper," Olivia responded immediately, equally sleepy, and Hunnigan laughed softly at the exchange between the two.